stupid

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ˈstjuː.pɪd/, US /ˈstuː.pɪd/^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin stupidus (“amazed, confounded; dull, foolish”),^[2][3] perhaps partly borrowed from Middle French stupide,^[2][4] from stupeō (“I am stunned, amazed, struck senseless”),^[3][2] which is akin to Greek týptein “to beat, strike”, the source of type.^[2][4] Etymonline takes it to Proto-Indo-European *(s)teu- (“to push, knock, beat”).^[3] Old English had no single word for the idea, using unwīs, dol (the source of dull) and dysig (the source of dizzy).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

“Slow or dull in thinking”: 1541, in Copland's translation of Galen's Terapeutyke,^[2][5][4] the 1540s.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Stupid long kept its link with stupor: “stunned, dumbfounded, stupefied” is attested from the 1610s,^[3][5] was very common in Dryden, and lasted into the mid-18th century;^[3] it is now archaic.^[3][6] Blount's dictionary of 1656 defines it only as “dismaid, abashed, astonied, amazed, senceless”.^[3] The slow-witted sense eventually became the main meaning.^[7] Of ideas or actions, “showing stupidity”, it is from 1621,^[2][5] and “dull, pointless” by 1778.^[3] The noun, “a stupid person”, is from 1712, in Steele's Spectator.^[2][3] Stupidity is also from 1541.^[2]

Timeline

• 1541 – slow-witted.^[2][5]
• 1611 – stunned, stupefied.^[5]
• 1621 – of actions, showing stupidity.^[2][5]
• 1656 – Blount: dismayed, amazed.^[3]
• 1712 – noun, a stupid person.^[2][3]
• 1778 – dull, pointless.^[3]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Lacking intelligence or common sense; slow to learn or understand.
2. Showing a lack of good sense: a stupid mistake.
3. Boring or annoying; pointless.
4. (archaic) In a stupor; dazed.

Noun

1. (informal) A stupid person.

Word family

• stupidly
• stupidness
• unstupid
• stupidity

Related words

• stupefy
• stupor
• stupendous
• type

Usage notes

Stupid is the most general of the words meaning lacking intelligence;^[8] slow and dumb suggest a slowness to learn,^[8] while dull suggests a lack of mental sharpness and obtuse an inability to understand.^[8]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin